Rep Marketing

It’s not just about getting a 5-star reputation, it’s about leveraging that 5 star reputation to bring in a constant flow of new customers. Welcome to what we call reputation marketing.

Online Reputation Marketing is the act of building a 5 star reputation, and then furthering that reputation- by strategic marketing- to attract more customers.

What prompts a customer to buy your product?

Authority. Are you a proven expert in your field?

Proof. Can you deliver a quality product or service like you say you do?

Scarcity. If your product isn’t easy to come by, people are more likely to buy it from you.

“Proof” is perhaps the most important thing that can prompt a customer or client to buy from you. This is why review sites are so popular with customers or clients- it is tangible evidence that shows that your product or service really is as awesome as you think it is. As such, online reputation marketing relies heavily on “proof”, which lends itself to furthering your “authority”.

Where a lot of businesses fail is in presenting their reputation to their potential customers. Businesses have, in the past, come to rely on major search engines like Google to weed out all the companies that apparently have bad reputations. The thinking was that, because a business popped up on the first page of a search result, it meant the search engine provider performed a quality check on the company in question.

This isn’t so. In fact, these days, a business website’s presence on Google first page has more to do the reputation and popularity of that business.

There are three major avenues on the Net, when it comes to online reputation marketing:

Review Sites

Social Media Sites

Search Engines

Basically, all of these methods are built on using word-of-mouth style marketing- this is a form of social interaction, and the more this interaction is capitalized on, the greater a business’ reputation will be.

With the recent changes in Google, they have now reverted to the old Google Places moniker to describe what was originally called Google Places but was most recently referred to as Google+ Local. And the focus for the new Google Places? Well, it seems to be on getting and showcasing reviews.

*insert 5 star rating system graphic*

In essence, your business is one negative review shy of having a bad reputation. So, it’s in your best interest as a business owner to develop a marketing strategy that will help you get good reviews. When you are working on your own online reputation marketing, it’s a good idea to remember that it takes most people only a handful of reviews before they decide which company to go with. How many reviews does your company have?

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